*New Handout* Brought to Bay Area & Sacramento

STOP HIGHWAY 101 EXPANSION THROUGH RICHARDSON GROVE!

Richardson Grove is the mystifying stretch of Highway 101 that curves through the south fork of the Eel River where, coming north, one first encounters ancient redwood forest. The California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) is set to implement a plan, launched by federal, state, and corporate interests, to widen Hwy 101 through Richardson Grove.
This project threatens the survival of ancient redwood forest and would usher in and exacerbate a host of
horrendous social, economic, and cultural problems.

Some of the last 2% remaining old growth redwoods, including the 9th tallest in the world, lives in Richardson Grove. It's crucial to do everything possible NOW in order to stop Caltrans. You know you're in redwood country when you bike, walk or drive through the road lined with giants of many generations. Further from the road, the redwood grove extends. You might notice the tops of some of the huge trees along Hwy 101. No greenery and no branches way up there, but instead “spike tops.” They're the result of top die-off from compaction & other injury to the shallow roots of the giant trees. Roots must be protected.

The Richardson Grove area, for millenia, has been & remains sacred territory for First Nations people in this region and is an important place for visitors and inhabitants, human & non-human, of many nations.

Traveling north up Hwy 101 from the Bay Area, you pass hillsides, stripped of their majestic oaklands, now replaced by miles of grape vineyard grids as far as the eye can see. North of that, you arrive in Willits, where there is an arched entry announcing “Gateway to the Redwoods”. But there are no redwoods there; only gas stations and chain stores lining a four lane highway.

As the redwoods in Willits have been replaced by roads and chain-stores, the current “gateway to the redwoods” is about 60 miles north:
Richardson Grove State Park.

CalTrans, using federal and state funds, plans to cut old and young trees, excavate ancient roots, and harm rare and endangered species that inhabit Richardson Grove- all to expand Hwy 101 for greater truck and military access through the coast. Richardson Grove State Park was established to protect this area from the “drums of progress." Not one tree should be cut or harmed in a State Park.

Ancient redwood forest is rare, highly threatened, near extinction. Ancient redwood trees: at risk of there being no more left on Earth. Roads, sprawl, development & short-sighted profiteers have, in a relatively brief period of time, stripped the earth of these amazing beings & the wisdom & life they support.

“There's a real NAFTA scam ruining lives all around.
Don't bring tanks and sweatshops through our ancient grounds.” Richardson Grove Action Now

►CONTACT
RICHARDSON GROVE ACTION NOW

707.602.7551 rgroveactionnow@gmail.com

Direct Action to Stop the Road Widening!

Resist Corporate and U.S. Military Invasion

“I've seen great glaciers melting...met lightning eye to eye.
Now I hear bulldozers coming & I know that I am soon to die” The Tree, Dana Lyons

***

CALTRANS PLANS TO EXPAND HIGHWAY 101
THROUGH RICHARDSON GROVE STATE PARK

● Funded by the Federal Govt. & the State of California, $5.5 million from each of them.

● A State Park is supposed to be protected from any tree cutting or damage. Tree cutting and irreparable damage are part of this plan.

● Ancient redwoods inhabit Richardson Grove. ● CalTrans would have to cut ancient redwoods in order to widen the road to the plan's dimensions.

● CalTrans would excavate and cut the roots of the ancient trees in Richardson Grove and severely compact the root zones.

● Redwood tree roots are shallow. They stay healthy through their connection to other redwood roots in the area, and cannot withstand compaction.

● CalTrans would be would stealing private property which includes old growth trees, is steeply sloped on both sides of the road, and houses Singing Trees (Drug) Recovery Center. ● That land would be stripped bare and flattened into roadbed for the road widening project.

● CalTrans also has plans to widen every highway coming from the East into the Humboldt Bay region. One of those plans would desecrate Jedediah Smith State Park on Rte 199. One plan has already included a huge clearcut on both sides of Rte 299, on the eastern end.

● Highway expansion through Richardson Grove is motivated by corporate, military, & nuclear industry interests.

● CalTrans tried to pass this plan through without environmental review or public input. ● There are 2 lawsuits with multiple plaintiffs against the plan.

● Politicians, from the County Supervisors to the Congress reps, rubber-stamped the plan, ignoring legalities and large public outcry.

● Local gov't used $55, 000 public funding to disingenuously promote the plan through paid letters to the editor, lobbying, & teaching business owners how to promote it.

● The State promotes the road widening to increase access for big trucks.

● There is a low incidence of accidents on Hwy 101 thru Richardson Grove currently -even though big semi's get through already.

THE ROAD WIDENING THROUGH RICHARDSON GROVE WOULD:

►bring an increase in large trucks going faster. Conditions would make the stretch dangerous for drivers and almost impossible for anyone to walk or bike on the shoulders as they do now.

►allow an inundation of trans-national corporations into north coast towns, subjecting the land, waters, forests, local economies, and working conditions to the ruinous dominance of greedy corporations.

►in conjunction with highway expansions from every other entrance into the Humboldt Bay region, expose the entire northcoast to increased militarization and corporate exploitation.

►have irreparable negative consequences. Change the face of the north coast.

THERE IS A STRONG PEOPLES' RESISTANCE TO HIGHWAY EXPANSION THROUGH RICHARDSON GROVE. WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Richardson Grove Action Now 707.602.7551 rgroveactionnow@gmail.com
saverichardsongrove.blogspot.com

Road Widening: Cutting Ancient Trees, Replacing Local Jobs With Outside Corporate Interests

Soon, Richardson Grove Action Now will be putting out a new info pamphlet focused on more lies from CalTrans, in particular about its plan for ancient trees in Richardson Grove State Park. Maps from CalTrans fail to show some of the large, old trees that would need to be cut for the road widening.

We ask: Have you seen Richardson Grove? Do YOU believe that road widening can happen without CUTTING BIG TREES?

There are several places where the road is so tight between the trees, CalTrans would have to cut the ancient trees in Richardson Grove State Park to make the road the size it wants. Measuring between two huge old trees on either side of the road, there is only 22.8 feet right up to the trees. STAA truck road, what the feds and CalTrans want, is 28 feet wide! CalTrans needs 24 feet of "traveled way" (road) and two feet of shoulder on each side-even without shoulders they don't even have that much room! The road would necessarily cut right into the trees. Also, there are "fill" and "cut [roots] lines on the CalTrans maps which go right through big trees in the Grove!

In addition, CalTrans, according to its Final Environmental Impact Report, can still cut whole areas of forest on private property to build a retaining wall. The retaining wall is still listed on the CalTrans website charts. CalTrans would have to steal the Singing Trees property through 'eminent domain' to do that. CalTrans has a practice of lying to the public and to the property owners from whom it plans to take land and homes for its highway expansions.

Not ONLY about Ancient Trees

Several local trucking companies, including Gosselin, Customer Truck Service, and Altos Brothers will be forced to fire truck drivers and support personnel if CalTrans does its plan through our old growth redwoods and allows super trucks and trailers into our communities.

At a minimum, six to twelve jobs will disappear from just those Humboldt County companies if CalTrans gets its way. We’re talking $500,000 in lost annual payroll. And that's just three companies. And that's without considering all of the big businesses that will come in and force out local trucking contracts and businesses in time.


Here are links to Richardson Grove Action Now literature. Please distribute! If you need hard copies to give people and can't print them yourself, call (707) 602-7551 and we'll get you some!

Pamphlet for printing: http://www.box.net/shared/3kstv8flz7

Pamphlet for reading on the computer: http://www.box.net/shared/6xyyml02vu

CalTrans Lies Booklet: http://www.box.net/shared/j9bygxbgn3

Letter to Humboldt Board of Supervisors (March 8, 2011): http://www.box.net/shared/rv8qpyh5q3

General Flier, 1-sided: http://www.box.net/shared/jmthnd8da5

March 16 Update from Richardson Grove Action Now

On Wednesday, March 16, at 10 am, a group of us {activists involved with Richardson Grove Action Now} took a stroll and conducted a scouting mission up Highway 101 through Richardson Grove State Park and properties adjacent to the park. In addition to enjoying the immense beauty and serenity of the area, we made some observations and gained several insights that we would like to share with you.

Knowing that CalTrans has plans to replace and update the culverts (the pipe network that allows moving water to move from one side of the road to the other) on the southern end of the grove, we decided to take a close look at the culverts as they currently are. Since there was a good amount of rain earlier in the morning, the culverts, which are large pipes buried under the ground between the depths of 1-5 feet (I'd say) , were in full action with water being channeled under the road and crashing down the hillsides. A couple of us surveyed the culverts for a species of concern, a sort of rare salamander that could be endangered by this project. Though we did not find any trace of this elusive critter, we could not help but notice that some of the culverts run between thirty and forty yards (I'd say) into the state park. How is CalTrans planning to replace these culverts, some of which, as we mentioned, are a good five feet down in depth, without causing harm to nearby ancient redwood roots? The roots are also between one and five feet in depth.

Along the Richardson Grove stretch of Highway 101 we saw a number of CalTrans survey stakes, on the east side of the road, marked with a cryptic series of numbers and letters. We documented the stakes by photo and are now in the process of trying to make sense of these markers. There was speculation that some of these markers may be new (a week or so old), though this theory has not yet been confirmed. In any case, we were shocked by how close in proximity the stakes are in relation to massive, old growth redwoods. From what we understand, these stakes mark the borders of the CalTrans road widening project. If this is indeed true, and after looking at the Environmental Impact Report it seems to be, then CalTrans is planning to pave right up to many old growth trees. Given what we know about redwood root growth patterns, which are generally shallow and wide reaching, as well as modern road construction techniques, which effect the ground several feet below the pavement surface, this does not appear to bode well for the health and longevity of these living relics.

As we continued to head north and out of the state park area on our journey through the old growth forest, we observed, on a sharp curve on the west side of Highway 101 across from the Singing Trees Recovery Center about fifteen feet up on a steep slope, more brightly colored markers, similar to the markers that we saw earlier. If you were to picture the space in between the road and these markers filled with pavement (which if it were to be somewhat level would require the excavation

and removal of a hillside), the resulting image would be, comparatively to what is currently there, a section of road that is wider with a significantly less sharp curve. This is interesting, because CalTrans has insisted throughout the history of this project that their plan would not “straighten” the road but rather, as they claim, only marginally widen it in certain areas. If indeed it is part of CalTrans' plan to straighten the road in this section, the result would significantly reduce the aesthetic appeal of the north entrance to the park and moreover, add to its destruction.

Throughout our stroll and scouting mission, we could not help but notice that the electrical/telephone/cable lines are relatively short in height in the Richardson Grove section when compared to the lines on rest of Highway 101. In fact, by our estimation, some of the lines offer only a mere foot and a half of clearance for the tops of the larger trucks passing underneath them. It seems logical then to assume, since CalTrans has stated that its reason for "improving" this section of road is to allow greater access to larger trucks (although it is illegal to do any sort of construction in a state park for the purpose of perceived economic gain) that these lines will also be "improved". This seems especially likely because some of the poles that support the weight of these lines are in areas that are designated to be paved over. Given this, it seems to us, although we are not really sure, that PG&E., AT&T, Sudden Link, and possibly other line owners must also be scheduling work in the Richardson Grove area in the near future.

Constant research and information is vitally important for us in our fight to stop CalTrans' plan to widen Highway 101 through Richardson Grove. Although today's stroll through the proposed project area provided us with a more clear view of what is happening on the ground, there is still MUCH that we want to understand about the on-ground, day-to-day logistics. There is no injunction (stop order) from the courts to halt the construction project to widen Highway 101 through Richardson Grove. CalTrans has already begun the preliminary steps (surveys, permit acquisitions, contractor bids, etc.) to begin the on-the-ground work. We do not know the exact date that construction will begin but we do know that it is likely to occur in the near future. The time is now to stop this, the time is urgent, we must act!

Note: In December 2010, CalTrans made representations to the court and to the entities suing to stop the plan through Richardson Grove, that work on the project would not begin until at least June 2011. However, CalTrans has been preparing for the road widening. On the CalTrans website, culvert and other work are officially posted to begin this month, March 2011. Feel free to ask CalTrans employees yourself (at the office or on the ground) what they are doing!

Highway Widening Thru RIchardson Grove Would Facilitate Nuclear Waste Transport!

We don't know who made this video, but think it's great. It seems accurate except for the part that says that old-growth redwoods are set to be cut INSIDE Richardson Grove State Park for the CalTrans 101 road widening project. Our understanding is that ancient trees inside Richardson Grove are not scheduled to be cut, but will have their roots EXCAVATED, CUT, and PAVED OVER. Such damage to the roots is horrendous for the life of the trees. There are some old-growth redwoods on private property adjacent to the Grove that we suspect would be CUT, if CalTrans were to do the road widening. Join us in action to make sure CalTrans can't!
~Richardson Grove Action Now